Pope Benedict XVI flew to the island country of Malta last weekend to celebrate the 1,950th anniversary of Saint Paul's shipwreck in AD 60. Considering the current state of the Catholic Church in the United States and Europe, Benedict appears to be engineering his own shipwreck.
The Pope took the opportunity to visit, at length, with eight people sexually abused by the clergy. In a country roughly half the size of Chicago the Pope was able to find plenty of people who had been molested by his priests. Had he come to America he would have needed Madison Square Garden for the meeting.
During the Papal audience there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Pope was "deeply moved by the stories of the victims and expressed shame and sorrow for their suffering". He has promised to refer all future cases of sexual abuse by priests to the civilian authorities. Benedict, hello...horses?...barn door?
Sadly all of this Papal hand-wringing comes a bit late in the game. The reason that past sins cannot be prosecuted is that bishops, cardinals and popes sat on the complaints until it was too late for the authorities to act. Not that places like Ireland would have acted anyway but at least someone in power in the Church could say they tried. Every decision made prior to last week's announcement was made to prevent any scandalous mud from splattering the white vestments of the Pope.
The world has every right to be suspicious of this ecclesiastical epiphany. There have, thus far, been no outing of pedophile priests; no bishops forced to resign; no cardinals in the stocks. There has been no announcement of a "defrocking list" to be published in Obsarvatore Romano. The first time the Church acts rather than reacts to a complaint of abuse, they might begin to rebuild their credibility. The Pope would do well to remember that in order to receive absolution in the Confessional one must promise to "go and sin no more".
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